Full Text: Private Morals, Public Order: The Beginnings of the Modern State The conditions that the working class worked and lived in were so bad that ill-health and early death were common. People began to rebel against these conditions. So as to maintain order and produce a healthier and more skilled workforce, private philanthropists (charity workers) and the Victorian State began to intervene. Central to this intervention was the creation of the modern family, using the existing middle class family as the model. They used a combination of moral, legal, medical and educational methods and reforms. One of the most important concerns was the crusade against infant mortality and measures were introduced which aimed to ensure the healthy upbringing of children. The wife and the mother became the central focus for these policies. In this way, the state began to regulate the way that women performed unpaid work in the private world of the family in order to service and maintain the paid workforce. The poor are in desperate need of the moral guidance I shall give... Philanthropic housing The emergence of the family doctor Compulsory education The Family Economist; A Penny Monthly Magazine, Devoted to the Moral, Physical, and Domestic Improvement of the Industrious Classes, Vol. II, 1849. Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves. He Who Waits For Dead Men's Shoes May Go For a Long Time Barefoot. He Lives Well Who Lives In Peace. The Cottage Homes of England; By thousands on her plains, They are smiling o'er the silvery brook, And round the hamlet fanes; Through glowing orchards forth they peep, Each from its nook of leaves; And fearless there the lowly sleep, As the bud beneath their caves. The free fair homes of England; Long, long in hut and hall May hearts of native proof be reared To guard each hallowed wall. And green for ever he the groves, And bright the flowery sod; Where first the child's glad spirit loves Its country and its God. Domesticity-Domestication

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